Wright: “I don’t take it personally.”

He won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Awards. He’ll receive MVP consideration. He’s the face of the New York Mets. All that, and the suggestion is he would have to be the one to move if the Mets are foolish enough to go after Alex Rodriguez.

Speaking after an appearance this afternoon at the NYU Medical Center, Wright said: “That’s what I love about playing in New York. Nobody is going to care next year if I won a Gold Glove or a Silver Slugger Award. They only care about winning here. I don’t take it personally. It’s not a slap in the face to me.’’

Wright said he’s preparing to play third next season, and when he talked with GM Omar Minaya after the season A-Rod wasn’t a conversation topic. I’m not buying all that. It was probably more along the lines of: “You’ll be hearing a lot of talk, don’t worry about it.’‘

John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

30 Comments

Steve C.

Wait a second they re-signed delgado?! oh man he must give it good.
And who the hell wants B-ROD?! give up Wright for B-Rods? someone better have Omar pee in a cup. because he’s been doing something mind altering..

They didn’t re-sign Delgado—this is the last year of the contract he signed with the Marlins the year before the Mets traded to get him. He gets $16 million in salary and $4 million for the buyout of his 2009 option—and it will be hard to trade him with $20 million coming his way in 2008.

Note: The Mets get $4 million from the Marlins in 2008 as part of the trade.

Note: Delgado’s 2009 option has some complicated vesting formulas in it. I haven’t checked lately but I think it is very unlikely (maybe even impossible) for the option to vest.

I just saw Annie’s comment about D Wright being the future of the Mets and felt compelled to respond. Last night I was attending a birthday gala for a good friend of one of the Mets minority owners. Since he knows I’m a Mets fan, as we were discussing the needs of the team and what they should do, he told me something that shocked me. He said that the Mets owners and management have had internal discussions about signing A Rod and then trading D Wright for another teams ace pitcher straight up (Santana, Peavy, Bedard, Sabathia, etc). That way they’d still have as good a bat (or better) in the middle of the lineup and gain the ace they need without sacrificing the farm. They are concerned however, about how this would play with the fans. It is probably an idea they’ve already dismissed, but it was interesting and thought I’d share.

Calm yoselves guys – I said at the end of my Matsui paragraph, and I quote, “I would say no.” After I went through the possibilities, I concluded I wouldn’t want him; it was just a thought. I would take Green for his defense mostly. He can start high enough, then drop back to eighth if he’s not doing so well. We saw this season that our offense couldn’t helpus when the pitching and defense didn’t hold.

I looked at a game from September to check a lineup that we used, and the recap almost made me tear up: “Now that they’ve hit September, the confident New York Mets are coming down the stretch like champions.” UGH! http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=270910121 It was the September 10 game against the Braves.

I just heard that Posada has re-signed with the Evil Empire for 4 years. John, any updates on the Mets and their pursuit of catchers, especially since they have none signed at either the major league or triple A level? Any gossip about trades or exploring the remaining thin free agent market if they do not sign LoDuca and Castro? Possibly a good topic for discussion for tomorrow.

To Seth: What if Castillo and LoDuca want 2 years. What you gonna do then?. As a fan shouldn’t we say we want a guy or not. The money and years are the GMs problem. If I wanted LoDuca back, (which I don’t because he is washed up)
I would care less less how he is signed.

To Spiderpig: You’re gonna have a logjam in the 8 hole with Green and LoDuca and Alou’s replacement for half the season or more.

Sloppy – You’re so negative a lot of the time and don’t seem to understand that you have to see how things play out. I doubt if Green and LF player and C player were all on the team that they would all hit crappily enough at one time to have to hit eighth. Maybe we could then bat the pitcher sixth and show up LaRussa.

Wow! That info about the Mets having discussions about trading Wright for an ace and putting A-Rod at 3B is pretty scary. I’ve never really entertained the notion of rooting for another team but I think I’d consider it if Mets management went and did something like that.

Thanks for calling me negative. I’m not the one who choked in September. I want change because I watched this team and for over 100 games it was a mediocre club. And now virtually everyone is advocating to do as little as possible. The guys I reference are all # 8 hitters. With Green, LoDuca and Endy or SUB-X in left you wil be forced to have no protection for Wright or Beltran (who bats 4th?) and the result will be a terible year for them. Milledge ready for 5th? I don’t know. Not with Green behind him. So call me names but you have to open your eyes with no Met bias, and see what we had before you call me out.

Am I negative because I want this club to get the best vice garbage? If that’s negative then bring back the 94-97 team. Bring back the late 70’s early 80’s. You guys probably freaked when Cashen brought in the high risk Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen or Gary Carter for Hubie Brooks. I remember all the whining, just like the A-Rod whining. Hernandez can walk at the end of the year they siad, Carter is a big mouth and Hubie is so good they said. Well, you want to win with average talent, it ain’t happening…..

We hate the Yanks but one thing they know is it takes talent to win. So do the Sox. Omar looks for the jewel in the garbage heap and when he gets lucky once in a while he’s proclaimed a genius. Well there were no jewels in the heap in 2007 were there? I’ll take my chances with the best hitter on the market and then I’d go get the best pitcher before he hits the market, and take my chances.
And as for the circus. Damn right I want the circus in Queens and out of the Bronx. I want the Yanks buried in the rags like they were in 69 and 86. A-Rod and Santana puts them (Yanks) in the middle of the paper where they belong.

Sloppy, I would have to disagree with the finding the “diamonds in the rough”. It is ok to look for such and Omar has done a reasonably good job of finding some gems. The key is knowing it is a gem and not fools gold.

Perez/Maine are some gems (maybe a garnet not a diamond). But silva is fools gold. And Castillo and Loduca at the prices they are talking are taking your gold and turning it into straw.

I would agree Scoop but since the original burst Omar made, he has lived in the heap. Last year his only signing was an old injury plagued left fielder, and Schoeneweis, and Newhan, and Easley…. Not quite the talent you and I are arguing for. If he did both like he did when he first came I’d be thrilled but …
As far as 2B I think I’d give the job full time to Gotay if Castilo really wants 4 years, and if he couldn’t produce vs lefties then start adding the Easley platoon. At catcher you are right. LoDuca is done in all respects. On the mound if I couldn’t trade for a real ace I’d let Pelfrey, Humber and Mulvey fight it out rather than go after junk like Silva or Glavine. If I’m desperate I always have El Duque for one of the spots sometimes.
If I can’t make a trade then Milledge is in Right, Gomez comes up when Alou gets hurt, and F-MART is moved to 1B the first day of sprting training instead of the stupid use of him in centerfield they did in Binghamton last year. Then maybe we’d have someone to replace Delgado in 2009. 2008 would be a rebuilding year but its gonna be bad with no changes anyway, what’s the difference.
And as for the pen, Mota and Schoenewies would have been released already. Air would be an improvement.

For the money/yrs Alou is ok for me if he is healthy come Sept/Oct. Easly was ok too. He is just a role player. Show I thought was a panic move. Maybe he picthes like he did toward the end of 07. Newman was a waste.

But you forget a few others….Sanchez…anderson…Chavez…..gotay. These guys may not be diamonds but they were not bad pickups.

I blame more of the issues w/the team on the Wilpons. They could spend money like the Sox, but don’t want to. And if they did want to, we’d be talking about guys like Arod, Guerrero, etc.

And you can’t rely completely on unknowns, especially for pitching. Hence, if the Muts don’t want to trade away the farm for a guy like Santana I could live w/a short term solution like Livan Hernandez.

I’m saying this b/c I don’t see any big names coming here via trade or FA. So better to get a guy who will probably only command 1-2 yrs. And maybe he and his bro can at least get us to a playoff and if Pedro is healthy and Maine/perez progress we might be ok.

“He said that the Mets owners and management have had internal discussions about signing A Rod and then trading D Wright for another teams ace pitcher straight up (Santana, Peavy, Bedard, Sabathia, etc).”

And then they finished the marijuana they were smoking and laughed it off.

“They are concerned however, about how this would play with the fans.”

As well they should be. This would rank with the Seaver trade in the annals of asinine trades.

Sloppy – I like the idea of Fernando! playing first. However, he has to stay healthy, he has missed most of the past 2 years with injuries. Even if they did move him, odds are he would not be ML ready in 2009. He is only 19.

A couple of things to note. On F-Mart, the Mets have hope that he could be a corner outfielder but have already discussed the possibility of 1B. I think we will have a better idea if he stays healthy and has a good year in the minors.
On our FA’s just because they want 3 or 4 years does not mean that the Mets have to be stupid and give them what they want. If someone else does, then take the draft picks and move on.

On Teixeira his agent is Boras so I think it is pretty much a given that he is not going to sign with the Braves.

I know everyone wants the Mets to make a big bang this off season but it is just as important that they do not do anything stupid and tie themselves up with really bad contracts on older or mediocre players.

Mota is bad but at least his contract was only for 2 years.

Also please stop the complaints on Newhan. If you have to complain about the guy who was the 25th man on the roster
you really need to get a life.

Sanchez was a major trade. I remember many fans not liking it because we gave up our Korean stud who was so good I can’t remember his name. All the other guy you mention Omar signed when he also signed big names. Last winter he signed nobody big just junk. And we can argue Alou all day but my opinion is if a guy misses half the season he causes more disruption to the line=up than benefit.
You can say the Mets are discussing ,moving F-Mart but fact is he played CF where he will never play in Queens. (BAD MANAGEMENT). He may not be ready in 2009 but playing another year in CF will guarantee it.
Scott: You totally miss the point on Newhan. The complaint wasn’t about him, it was a complaint about Omar doing nothing last winter except getting cheap guys. He was a total failure last winter and if you deny it you are blind. Alou (misses half the season, Schoeneweis for 3 years instead of Bradford, Mota for 2, and Newhan for the bench to be the main lefty. Omar did a lousy job. Remember Newhan was our # 1 lefty sub!!!!!!!!!!

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